U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.6% in the second quarter on an annualized basis, less than had been initially announced, the Commerce Department indicated today in a second estimate.

In the first estimate, released at the end of July, the decline in GDP between April and June was 0.9%.

The US GDP has already shrunk in the first two quarters of the year, which corresponds to the classic definition of recession, but this scenario has been dismissed by the US administration and several economists, who consider that the economy is not necessarily in recession, having other more favorable indicators, such as the unemployment rate, which remains very low.

In the first quarter, US GDP had contracted by 1.61TP2Q, according to the data released.